I pledge allegiance

Aired in 1969. Lest we forget the true meaning of our Pledge. Isn't it amazing that something spoken back in 1969 by a comedian could be so true today?

Million American March

Hmmm...no arrests. No litter left behind. Laughter and good conversations galore.

Sounds like a mob protest to me.

Too bad the mainstream media doesn't think the fact that hundreds of thousands (most likely millions) of Americans joined together on Saturday, September 12th to protest the big government spending was newsworthy. Republicans, Democrats and Independents joined together to show that "We're not going to take it anymore."

Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to D.C. this weekend and can only rely on bloggers that were there for accounts of the events. (Because WHO would rely on the media?!?!?)

Here are some good posts I have come across about Saturday's events: Infowars.com, Massive Corporate Media Coverup of Real Numbers at D.C. Rally Powerlineblog.com, CNN, "Making it up" as usual Lookingattheleft.com, Conservative Woodstock Rocks the Capital Moderateinthe middle.com, Media credibility plunges to new low

Nevermind that there were events throughout the country (see below for report on protest in Los Angeles) for those that couldn't make it to D.C. Check out Fort Worth in the rain, courtesy of Durangotexas.blogspot.

Hmmm...Off to scour through more blogs and other non-traditional media to find coverage of what actually happened on September 12, 2009 in America. When the sleeping giant officially woke up.

I would be SHOCKED if this doesn't become a historical moment in our nation's politics. The mainstream media can keep this as quiet as it wants, but because the people in D.C. and cities throughout the nation that were there in the streets that day are ordinary citizens and friends and colleagues with the fence teeters--we may just see a swing. A huge swing. I know I'd be curious. Spread the word. It's getting louder and more clear every day.

UPDATE:

Click here to check out the protest in Los Angeles from Americanpower.blogspot.com.

I got this link (great pictures from stblogustine) from one of my favorite visiting spots, ALa. (h/t ALa for the pictures below!)

Obama's Inauguration vs.

The unruly mobs of America:

Freedom of Speech Only Applies...

Well, posting once a month is unacceptable and I deeply apologize. I will try to be more proactive with this blog--but I simply can't help but let the smell of fall and football just around the corner distract me from my obligations. Because, in case you haven't noticed...I love football. But enough about that. I do my daily reading of news stories (if you can call it that--"news"), and I check on my favorite blogs for updates and I find myself AMAZED at what some people will let this current administration and its goonies get away with.

Flag@whitehouse.gov? Seriously? Hey little ones, if you hear your mommy and daddy talking bad about our President or his policies, please let your good White House know. Remind you of anything else? Please note when that link was published. Yes--I saw (like many of you) the potential of similarities long before we elected this man into office. I say "we" in the most general sense of the word.

It's only proper to dissent when you disagree with W? But don't you dare oppose Obama and his goons. Never mind that they're trying to ram through legislation that our representatives have admitted to not reading (I don't think a link is necessary--as we've all seen the reports). I think one of my favorite quotes thus far comes from Dan Jeror (h/t John Hawkins at Townhall.com), "Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three to four weeks when the President took six months to pick out a dog for his kids?" Ummm. Good question.

As I sit hear and ponder today's politics, I honestly get sick to my stomach that there are actually people that are accepting this type of behavior. Organizing for America is grassroots? Please. I pray daily that more and more Americans wake up to what is happening and let these fools know in D.C. that we are ON TO THEM. We are not a monarchy--and just because you're a Washington bureaucrat does NOT mean that you are better than me--so get over this Marie Antoinette attitude. My friends--I can only pray that we show up at the polls with fury and rage come November 2010 and let these bureaucrats know just who IS the boss in this good ol' USA.

I wish more than anything I could head to Washington on September 12th...but with stuff going on in my personal life and you know, my JOB (that apparently I am simply working to pay for Joe Blow the LOSER), I am unable to get away. I hope that some of you are able to make it. We need a STRONG showing to let D.C. know. We're not messing around anymore.

So--my hiatus has resulted in a long rant. I will try my very best to do some research and post more than once a month from here on out. Maybe The General will contribute, too? (hint, hint)

You May Be a Conservative Yet

Those are the words I stated to my friend last night. She rolled her eyes and said, "no."

"Think about it."

Earlier in the evening my friend had been complaining about John Doe. John Doe had told my friend's husband that he would sell a concert ticket for him since the said husband couldn't go to the show. John Doe sold the ticket--then proceeded to spend the money at the show. John Doe is now telling my friend's husband that he is poor and can't pay him back. With the money that he shouldn't have spent in the first place. Needless to say, my friend is not pleased.

Then I launch into the explanation:

I told her to think about it in a politcal manner. John Doe is the one taking my money and your money and not doing ANYTHING to deserve it. John Doe is full of entitlement when he shouldn't be. John Doe is irresponsible and has no desire to make anything of himself because John Doe's mother and family and friends have allowed him to slump through life. Hmm. Sound familiar? Just replace John Doe with the freeloaders--replace the family and friends with taxpayers and our government. It's the John Doe's in the world that make me fiscally conservative and should you, too. If you work hard to earn your money--why should you have to give it to someone else who doesn't work hard for anything?

Furthermore--here's a story for you to consider. This very successful gentleman was raised in a dirt poor family. When I say dirt poor I mean, small town, rural, deep South dirt poor. This gentleman got his first job at the age of 10. His mother instilled work ethic in him. He joined the Army as soon as he could--went to college then on to graduate school. This guy --who could've said, "let the government take care of me" chose not to. He chose to make something amazing of himself. Now--this government wants to tax the living daylights out of him because he's too successful. He's what this country is all about.

My friend considered all this and shrugged. "Maybe you're right--maybe you're not."

I winked and said, "maybe you're more conservative than you thought."

The one thing we both can agree on these days? We don't like politicians. Period.

The PROPER Role of Government

Glenn Beck read the following letter the other day on his show. It is kind of lengthy but hits the nail on its head. I think we're all kind of feeling this way these days. Spread the letter. WE THE PEOPLE will regain control. Enough IS enough.

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three, Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

September 2001 vs. Today

Written September 11, 2008: From all the horror our country experienced on September 11, 2001, we did gain one positive: Our Nation gained pride. Pride some of us had never witnessed.

On September 10th, 2001, neighborhoods throughout the nation sported football team flags and yard decorations. By nightfall on September 11th, these neighborhoods had transformed into Old Glory sporting, candle burning memorials.

Throughout the nation, men and women said, "what can we do?"

Throughout the nation, Americans forgot about the small things, whether their neighbor was Republican or Democrat, who was black or white.

Those trivial things were gone...and for the first time in many's memory, we were all simply American.

Fast forward....seven years later. Where are we?

People yelling and screaming that we're war mongers and oil fanatics.

People yelling and screaming that we ignore international affairs too much.

People yelling and screaming that we're too harsh on illegal immigrants.

People FORGETTING what it felt like seven years ago today.

People already forgetting what it felt like to be an American.

People forgetting when men and women walked out of their desk jobs and joined the military.

Where each and everyone of us stared at the tv in shock.

We have forgotten as a nation what that day felt like. Now we're more concerned with the little things (just as we were before).

Half of this nation now wants to elect a man into office that has only held a Senate position for 140 days--and has NEVER considered leaving his desk job to join the military. Half of this nation wants to elect a man into office that doesn't place his hand over his heart when reciting the Pledge. Half of this nations wants to elect a man into office who's wife stated PUBLICLY that she was not proud to be an American. What have we come to? How can this even be acceptable?

I'll never forget. I'll never falter in my pride.

And now--we have elected this man into office. This man who parades throughout the world apologizing (no reference, just goodsearch or bing it) for what America has done. Condemning this beautiful nation for it's "horrible" actions.

A week ago Monday, America experienced its first terrorist attack on soil since that tragic day in September 2001. Just as Juval Aviv has predicted--it's the first, but certainly not the last.

I Do Not Choose to be a Common Man

By Dean Alfange

It is my right to be uncommon--if I can.

I seek opportunity--not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say, "This I have done."

Thoughts from a Marine Vet

Going with the theme of posting other people's writings...I received an email today from The Guy. The email was a blog post by Robert A. Hall, a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate (link is title below). Because this is circulating via email now (throughout the country--my chain had Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Boston, MA and some other east coast addresses) I figured I'd post it here, too. Very well stated Mr. Hall!

I'm Tired

I’ll be 63 soon. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce, and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I’ve worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven’t called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn’t inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t have my work ethic. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy or stupid to earn it.

I’m tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to “keep people in their homes.” Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I’m willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the leftwing Congresscritters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them—with their own money.

I’m tired of being told how bad America is by leftwing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t multiculturalism be beautiful?

I’m tired of being told that Islam is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family “honor;” of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t “believers;” of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for “adultery;” of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to.

I believe “a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.” I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” in the post-racial world of President Obama, when it’s all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of US Senators from Illinois. I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less in an all-knowing government.

I’m tired of a news media that thinks Bush’s fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama’s, at triple the cost, were wonderful. That thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, that picked over every line of Bush’s military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his, that slammed Palin with two years as governor for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004.

I’m tired of being told that out of “tolerance for other cultures” we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore’s, and if you’re greener than Gore, you’re green enough.

I’m tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don’t think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I’m tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I’m tired of illegal aliens being called “undocumented workers,” especially the ones who aren’t working, but are living on welfare or crime. What’s next? Calling drug dealers, “Undocumented Pharmacists”? And, no, I’m not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic and it’s been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.

I’m tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people then themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years—and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we’ll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.

I’m tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers—bums are bi-partisan. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in Illinois , where the “ Illinois Combine” of Democrats and Republicans has worked together harmoniously to loot the public for years. And I notice that the tax cheats in Obama’s cabinet are bi-partisan as well.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn’t have that in 1970, but we didn’t know we were “poor.” The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination, or big-whatever for their problems. Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I’m not going to get to see the world these people are making. I’m just sorry for my granddaughter.

I'm NOT 63 and, God willing, have a long way to go...and I'm already tired. Sad, huh?

Tea Parties Nationwide

I don't know if it is the pride or the emotional roller coaster, but I've been tearing up for the last hour or so reading blogs, viewing pictures and watching videos of the tea parties being held across the nation today.

From Frank Strategies, video from DC:

Can ANYONE recall any other President inspiring a nationwide protest in just his second month of office? Maybe I'm too young or forgetful, but I don't even remember the "evil" W inspiring such passion from his opposition so soon?

Violence Among Us

After having a wonderful Mardi Gras experience myself...it saddens me to read the editorial below:

Jarvis DeBerry: Violence mocks our state of denial Posted by Jarvis DeBerry, Columnist, The Times-Picayune February 27, 2009

"A child, however, who had no important job and could only see things as his eyes showed them to him, went up to the carriage. 'The Emperor is naked,' he said." -- from "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen

Tuesday afternoon as a truck parade rolled down St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans had a moment of clarity about as startling as the one that prompted the boy in the fairy tale to honestly recount what he saw.

We saw that the barriers we've told ourselves separate the so-called bad neighborhoods from the good ones and keep criminals from interfering with the daily activities of decent folks are not only invisible, but they also happen to be nonexistent.

Police say seven innocent bystanders were shot as the parade moved through the Garden District, including two men around the age of 20 who were shot in the abdomen and hospitalized in serious condition. In addition to those two victims, a 20-month-old boy sustained a graze wound to his back; a 17-year-old girl was shot in the thigh; a 50-year-old woman was shot in the elbow; a 15-year-old boy was grazed in the back, and a 30-year-old man was grazed in the thigh.

Police booked 20-year-old Mark Brooks with seven counts of attempted murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. They booked 28-year-old Lazone Lewis with seven counts of principal to attempted murder.

Brooks had pleaded guilty in 2008 to possession of crack cocaine and was wearing a court-ordered ankle monitoring device when he was arrested, police said. Lewis pleaded guilty in November to marijuana possession and soon after being sentenced to probation was shot in the abdomen at an intersection in Central City.

Central City borders the Garden District. But we've grown accustomed to shootings occurring in one of those neighborhoods, but not the other. We've had faith in a barrier that would stop the violence from reaching St. Charles Avenue, let alone crossing over to the other side.

Funny how we believed in the invisible for so long, especially in a city where the character of a neighborhood often changes block to block. However, denial is a powerful hallucinogen; in this case, it caused residents to see a security barrier that never existed.

No one group is any more guilty than another for thinking that way. Who among us doesn't make distinctions between neighborhoods they believe to be safe and those they believe to be less so? Denial arises when we tell ourselves that street violence can be contained, when we tell ourselves that we're safe so long as the victims live a couple blocks or a couple neighborhoods away.

As the Rev. John Raphael noted in his eulogy for 2-year-old murder victim Ja'Shaun Powell, the problem is when we decide that other people's victimization makes violence exclusively the problem of other people.

That isn't a call to paranoia so much as it is an acknowledgment that unchecked violence in certain neighborhoods is going to eventually cross the boundaries and reach people who are not expecting it.

And if the police can't figure out a way to sharply reduce the violence in the places where we've come to expect and accept violence, then their security efforts in the quieter places will also be compromised.

The police had the parade route covered Tuesday afternoon, and yet the sound of gunshots still rang out.

That's proof that to some criminals, a strong police presence isn't a deterrent.

So you know an imaginary line between neighborhoods is not."

So, please, lefty leftys, please keep funding these thugs. With my paycheck at that. Because guess what? These guys DO NOT work. They've never been taught to work or value accomplishment...or life, at that. These fellas have been taught to depend on someone else OR to gain your belongings by taking from someone else.

The more money you pump into thug communities like this, the less likely we will ever get out of a recession. These are not the consumers. BUT they are the ones that qualify for welfare.

I must admit. Lately I've become disgusted at my government...and they have yet to do anything to change my mind.

Do you have to follow US tax laws in the Virgin Islands?

The Rebirth of the Conservative Party

It is no longer about being Repubublican or Democrat. It is about being American. Please read this piece out at America's Right. The piece is extremely well written and well worth the read.

After reading Jeff's piece, this thought came to me: We need to take this to the grassroots. Have people like YOU and ME (that are working to live, not living to work and are FAR from RICH) be the face of Conservatism. Show our fellow Americans that Conservatives are every day people with a great respect and appreciation of what we earn, who we are and who we want to be. We need to show those that are teetering that the values Conservatives stand by are what this country was made of. Not the values of the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Obama....

Furthermore, we need to find experts that can break down this bill line by line, word by word, and in layman's terms, so that our fellow Americans can UNDERSTAND the rights and liberties this "stimulus bill" will take away from us. We then need to send the breakdown in every form possible: snail mail, email, newspaper editorials. Hit it hard. Go door to door if we have to. Go to the roots.

This country is full of people that believe they are entitled to all that they have and are very used to living beyond their means. I don't know that once they figure out their basic rights are being stripped of them with the passage of ONE bill that they will take too kindly to it. It'll be interesting to see how the "common folk" react when the Federal government (otherwise known as the Prominent People) tells them *how to work, *how to raise their children, *whether or not their illness is cost effective and if their life is worth saving...

200+ years ago, this idea started with a group of people that all shared one common goal. Freedom and Justice for all. NOT freedom and justice for the Prominent People. It is time again, for the "common folk" to stand together and rally.

I think people are finally starting to see...this is beyond hope and change. This is now about the country that we love so dearly and all that it represents. This is about our freedoms, our rights, and even, our luxuries.

It is time now for the Rebirth of the Conservative Party.

Obama Decision to Move Census to White House

I'm starting to feel like I'm reading history books. Obama's latest move is to take the U.S. Census to the White House.

Moving the Census to the White House "It takes something that is supposedly apolitical like the census, and gives it to a guy who is infamously political," Bishop said of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who would be tasked with overseeing the census at the White House.

The U.S. census -- a counting of the U.S. population -- is conducted every 10 years by the Commerce Department. Its results determine the decennial redrawing of congressional districts

As a matter of impact, the census has tremendous political significance. Political parties are always eager to have a hand in redrawing districts so that they can maximize their own party's clout while minimizing the opposition, often through gerrymandering."

Click here to view the entire article.

Why do so many people NOT have a problem with this?!? Why do people honestly feel it is ok to give all the power to one party? When that happens, we as a people lose our voice. Our voice is then "decided" for us--often times without factoring in what is important to us. Often times, the only consideration is what pet group did what for what politician...

Proud to be an American...again.

I'm so glad that at this hour there are so many people that are proud to be American...AGAIN.

That has to be one of the most un-American statements I’ve ever heard. I’m still proud to be an American even though I don’t agree with the leadership to date. I’ll never stop being proud to be American. People that make those comments disgust me.

The Other Coworker: "ME TOO. These people should go spend a little time where pride is not allowed."

Amen.